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Were you scared of the dark growing up? Or maybe you still are!
你在成长过程中害怕过黑暗吗？或者你仍在害怕黑暗！
It's not too uncommon for adults either.
这对成年人来说并不罕见。
When you're young, being afraid of the dark goes hand in hand with some other fears,
你在小的时候，除了害怕黑暗之外，还害怕其他一些伴随而来的恐惧，
like of ghosts, monsters, or other spooky things.
比如幽灵、怪物或其他恐怖的东西。
And as you get older, you might not use that sort of explanation anymore.
随着年龄的增长，你可能不再使用这种辩解了。
But these irrational fears still stick around, because there are a lot of ways we learn to be afraid.
但这些非理性的恐惧仍然存在，因为很多方法能让我们学会害怕。
The good news is: research has found out that there are ways to fight those fears, too.
好消息是：研究已经发现，很多办法能够消除这些恐惧。
The way we usually develop fears is a well-understood part of psychology.
我们产生恐惧的常用方式是心理学中一个很容易理解的部分。
Most of the time, it's through classical conditioning.
大多数时候，它是通过经典条件反射产生的。
This is when you pair a neutral stimulus, something that doesn't make you feel anything,
经典条件反射是指当你配对一个不会让你有任何感觉的中性刺激时，
with something that you have an automatic reaction to.
你会有一种无意识的反应。
Like, imagine a person who's generally cool with dogs.
比如，想象一下，一个人通常对狗很喜爱。
But then, a dog bites her and she has to go to the hospital. That'd make anybody freak out a bit.
但是后来，一条狗咬了她，她不得不去医院。这件事会让任何人产生一点儿害怕。
Then, the neutral stimulus can become a conditioned stimulus, which gives you the same automatic reaction.
随后，中性刺激会变成条件刺激，后者会产生同样的自发反应。
In other words, after that experience, this person is more likely to be afraid when she sees a dog.
换句话说，这次经历之后，这个人在看到狗时更有可能害怕。
Some phobias, which are extreme or irrational fears,
一些恐惧症，即极端或非理性的恐惧，
can be caused by classical conditioning, including a fear of the dark.
可能会由经典条件反射引起，其中包括对黑暗的恐惧。
Research in animals and humans has found that conditioned responses are probably linked with the amygdala.
关于动物和人类的研究发现，条件反射可能与杏仁核有关。
That's a brain region that becomes active when people are afraid,
该大脑区域在人们害怕、
or have a lot of high-arousal emotions, like excitement and anger.
或有很多高唤醒情绪，比如兴奋或愤怒时会变得活跃。
So conditioned fears kind of make sense: they're based on something that happened to you.
所以，条件性恐惧是有点儿道理的：它们是根据你身上发生过的事情产生的。
And some surveys have found that most children have had a bad experience with the thing they're scared of, like spiders or the dark.
一些调查发现，大多数孩子对他们害怕的东西，比如蜘蛛或黑暗都有过糟糕经历。
But other phobias are of things that you've never actually experienced.
但是其他的恐惧症来自你从未经历过的事情。
Like, arachnophobia is one of the top fears in the world, but most people haven't actually been attacked by spiders.
比如，蜘蛛恐惧症是世界上最大的恐惧之一，但是大多数人并没有被蜘蛛攻击过。
Some survey results, including one sample of over 1,000 children and teenagers,
一些针对1000多名儿童和青少年的样本调查的结果
suggest that we might learn these fears because of modeling.
表明我们学习这些恐惧可能是因为建模。
Like, when your older brother sees a spider and freaks out, so you do too.
比如你的哥哥看到一只蜘蛛并感到害怕时，你也会害怕。
Or when you watch a Jaws where shark attacks are a huge threat,
或者当你看《大白鲨》电影里面的鲨鱼袭击是一个巨大威胁，
or a horror movie where the killer lurks in the darkness.
或者一部恐怖电影里杀手潜伏在黑暗中时，你都能学习到恐惧。
Even more common in that survey was learning through instructional fear acquisition,
调查发现，学习恐惧更常见的方式是教学恐惧习得，
when someone tells you to be afraid of something.
有人会告诉你要害怕的某些东西。
This can happen if your mom warns you to watch out for snakes,
如果你的妈妈警告你小心蛇，
or when news broadcasters talk about terrorist attacks,
或者新闻媒体谈论恐怖袭击，你就可能学习到恐惧，
even though the actual statistics say you're much more likely to die of something like a heart attack.
即使实际统计数据显示你更有可能死于心脏病等疾病。
This is because people tend to use an availability heuristic in their reasoning,
这是因为人们倾向于在他们的推理中使用可得性启发法，
meaning they use what's readily available to their mind.
也就是说，他们用的是他们头脑中现成的东西。
It's hard to remember the exact statistics about terrorism and heart disease,
我们很难记住恐怖主义和心脏病的确切数据，
but boy, that last story you saw on the news sticks with you.
但是，你在新闻上看到的最后一个故事留下了你的脑海中。
And it probably wasn't about a heart attack.
它可能不是关于心脏病的。
In fact, when researchers run studies and try to condition people to fear something neutral,
事实上，当研究人员进行研究并试图让人们适应害怕中性事物时，
like associating a certain tone with a mild shock,
比如将某种音调与轻微的震动联系起来，
they're more successful if they tell people what to be afraid of beforehand.
如果他们事先告诉人们该害怕什么，他们会更成功。
Now, across all these studies, some psychologists noticed a weird pattern:
现在，纵观所有这些研究，一些心理学家发现了一个奇怪模式：
some phobias are easier to create than others in certain species.
人们对某些物种更容易产生恐惧症。
For example, scientists have observed that it's easier for primates to develop a fear of snakes or spiders,
例如，科学家们发现灵长类动物更容易对蛇或蜘蛛产生恐惧，
but not of something like rabbits.
而不是兔子这样的物种。
They call this phenomenon biological preparedness.
他们称这种现象为生物准备。
We can't say for sure why it happens,
我们不能肯定为什么会这样，
but one idea is that these fears are somehow ingrained from our ancestors' behaviors.
但有一种观点认为，这些恐惧在某种程度上源自我们祖先的行为。
Like, all mammals might be more wary around snakes and lizards,
比如，所有哺乳动物在遇到蛇和蜥蜴时会更加小心，
because the first mammals could've been eaten by ancient reptiles.
因为最早的哺乳动物可能是古代爬行动物的食物。
Some ecologists looked into an evolutionary reason for fearing the dark, based on a risk from predators,
一些生态学家研究了黑暗恐惧的进化原因，它根据的是来自捕食者的危险，
by studying some regions of Tanzania where lion attacks are a threat to humans.
他们研究了坦桑尼亚的一些地区，那里狮子的攻击对人类是一种威胁。
Using data from over two decades and over a thousand lion attacks,
他们通过使用20多年来1000多次狮子袭击的数据，
they found that most attacks occurred right after sunset, when it's dark but people are still wandering around.
发现大多数袭击发生在日落之后，此时天黑了，但人们仍在四处游荡。
But they also found that attacks were up to four times more common in the ten days after a full moon than the period before,
但他们也发现，满月后十天内发生袭击的几率是满月前十天的四倍，
which is when the darkest part of the night is also right after sunset.
夜晚最黑暗的时候也是在日落之后。
So if that pattern of lions attacking humans in the dark was also true millennia ago,
如果这种狮子在黑暗中攻击人类的模式在几千年前也是真的，
it's possible that some early humans became conditioned to fear the dark or the full moon.
那么有可能一些早期人类已经习惯于害怕黑暗或满月。
Scientists have guessed that people might be predisposed to be afraid of the dark
科学家们猜测，人们倾向于害怕黑暗，
because we adapted to a risk of predator attacks.
可能是因为我们适应了捕食者的攻击风险。
But this is one of the first studies suggesting that darkness actually increased that risk.
这是第一批表明黑暗实际增加了这种风险的研究之一。
But it's worth taking these evolutionary hypotheses with a grain of salt.
但对这些进化假说持怀疑态度是值得的。
It's not like anyone's run a study where they assigned some people to a lion-risk condition and others to a no-lion condition,
任何人都不可能做这样的研究，研究中他们把一些人分成了狮子风险组，而另一些人则是无狮子风险组，
and then waited for generations to see what fears develop.
然后等几代来观察恐惧的发展。
So we've got a couple good ideas about where phobias come from.
关于恐惧症的来源，我们有几个很好的观点。
And if you have a phobia, psychologists have found ways to treat them.
如果你有恐惧症，心理学家们已经找到了它的治疗方法。
Many randomized trials show that one of the most effective treatments is called exposure therapy,
许多随机试验表明，最有效的治疗方法之一叫做暴露疗法，
which is essentially just conditioning in reverse.
它本质上是反过来的条件作用。
You slowly expose yourself to what you're afraid in small doses, like turning off the light for five seconds,
你慢慢地把自己暴露在小剂量的害怕事物中，如把灯关掉五秒钟，
being in the same room as a spider, or meeting groups of strangers until you don't have a bad reaction anymore.
和蜘蛛待在一个房间或者和一群陌生人见面，直到你不会再有糟糕反应。
Then you move the spider a little closer, leave the lights out longer, or meet more people,
然后你把蜘蛛移近一点，关灯的时间变长点儿，或者见更多的人，
until the phobia has less power over you.
直到恐惧对你的影响越来越小。
Now, fear is a really complicated thing.
恐惧是一件非常复杂的事情。
So if you love being scared by things like horror movies,
如果你喜欢被恐怖电影等吓到，
check out our video about why psychologists think that happens.
看看我们那期“心理学家为什么认为会发生这种情况”。
And if you want to keep learning about other brain things,
如果你想继续学习大脑的其他知识，
you can go to youtube.com/scishowpsych and subscribe.
可以登录youtube.com/scishowpsych点击订阅。
